The visiting Valley Christian football team rattled off 410 yards of total offense, including 387 on the ground, to defeat Riordan 45-0 in the West Catholic Athletic league finale for both teams on Saturday.

Valley Christian running backs Ryan Severson and Kirk Johnson combined for five touchdowns and 292 yards on the ground for the Warriors (4-6, 2-5), which have lost five WCAL games by a combined 28 points.

“Severson put up 281 yards against Bellarmine and we’ve put up 2,000 yards in rushing this season, and that was with him on a bad foot,” said Valley Christian head coach Mike Machado. “We’re still a very young team. We do lose Severson to graduation, but 15 of our 22 starters will be returning next year. Today was how we usually are offensively, but our defense had a great effort out there.”

The Crusaders (3-7, 0-7) were held to just 177 yards of total offense, but much of it came with Valley Christian’s first-team defense out of the game. Riordan only managed to get in the red zone once.

“The WCAL has been tough for us, but we won the first three games of the year, which is something this program hasn’t seen in a while,” said Riordan head coach Richard Sweeney. “We beat some good teams and we need to keep working, even with our numbers being so small. Our [junior varsity] program is a nice group and our freshman went 7-2 this year, so there [are] a lot of bright things to look forward to with Riordan football.”

Brett Hausmann, a senior quarterback for Valley Christian, got his first action of the season in the fourth quarter on Riordan’s grass field. Hausmann, who is allergic to an element of the artificial turf that most teams now use for fields, has been unable to play in the previous nine games of the season due to the allergy.

“He’s a tremendous athlete and leader,” said Machado “He’s lost two sports to the turf, but he still comes to practice and works hard. He leaves practice with blisters and things all over his feet from the allergies, but works hard. It was great for him and the guys to see him on the field.”

Even though the season ended with the Crusaders’ 17th straight WCAL loss, Sweeney made sure to mention that on-field accomplishments are not the only factors that define the Riordan football program.

“It’s not just a win on the scoreboard that matters,” Sweneey said. “It’s about winning in the classroom, at home and getting guys to graduate. That’s all a part of winning and keeps us on track with our goals as a program for Riordan.”

50 Comments

“winning in the classroom, at home and getting guys to graduate”????? Did he recycle a boilerplate college line???? He acts like Riordan football players have NOT been graduating before he arrived! What is At Home mean? Is he counseling parents on child raising? Beating three teams with a combined Calpreps score of TWO in the pre league schedule means nothing. NOTHING. 0-14 in league over the past two years, no player development, players not wanting to play after the freshman season and games like today mean something.
It was 28-0 in the first quarter. Twenty Eight to Zero with minutes left. Is this for real.

Athletics @ Riordan hasn’t thrived lately like it has in the past. Meanwhile graduation rates continue to remain at a, dare I say, 100% rate. With, perhaps, 70-75% of the graduates receiving acceptances to four year schools. Riordan graduates its students with or without successful teams.

I may interpret it differently from you. Let it remain there. The quote sounds like the program is getting students to graduate when in fact students long before he arrived also graduated and also played on losing teams. As WCAL said, it sounds more in context to a college program.

I think Sweeney meant that although they may not be winning games, that isn’t a reflection of the character that the program has instilled upon its players. The scoreboard may not show it but I bet the kids have learned valuable life lessons through football.

I do disagree with this. What if they lost every game by, let’s say, 1 score? Or what if they had beaten SHC by one and had only one win? A team that plays in a sorry league that has 3 or 4 wins should get a CCS berth but Riordan shouldn’t? No.that’s why they have A leagues B leagues and C leagues and adjust points accordingly. Most times if Riordan had 0 wins they wouldn’t get in. They just got lucky this year.

Getting guys to graduate? What is the drop out rate at Riordan? Coach is right , academics should come first but I did not think that Riordan had a problem “getting guys to graduate.” You are a private Catholic High School with tuition including a rich history of talented smart graduates that have contributed greatly to the City. When did the graduation problem start?

There is none. He is just reciting his loser speech from the college programs he coached at where graduation rates are published and affect scholarships etc. It’s what people do when all of the empirical evidence suggest they are doing poorly, they try and add to the narrative and introduce things that cannot be quantified, i.e. “winning at home”.

Direct you said it perfectly cause all sweeney does is lose! Last I checked WCAL schools always graduate kids so sweeney’s way of thought is wrong again! Get rid of sweeney and his ego asap Riordan or continue to suffer…

Another sad and pathetic display from a beaten down, lifeless, and directionless program with no leader, no identity, no energy or hope. He mentions the Junior Varsity team which also went 0-7 in league. The Frosh team went 7-2 but who’s to say those players will stay at the school and play for Sweeney? Will they develop under his tutorship at the same rate as the Serra, Bellleramine, and rest of the WCAL schools develop their players? In his two years as coach, there has been nothing to suggest that they will.

His quote is intended to deflect the attention away from his failures as the leader of the football program. His job is to make these students the best football players they can be through hard work, dedication, & through his talents as a teacher, mentor and motivator. His job is to make this team competitive. He has failed in every respect.

If they lost every WCAL game by 1 point and had an identical 0-7 record would people be complaining and asking for him to go? NO! The quote only displays how out of touch he is. His team lost by close to 5 touchdowns per game in league. They had a running clock in multiple games.

His team and his tenure I believe are on life support. Winning a coin flip was the only thing that will keep it going for another week. It might be better for him if they lose against Sobrato. If they win, they get to face these same Valley Christian Warriors, the 6th place team in league, and another humiliating loss.

Mr Direcyt is correct in several key points – 0-7 in league where the losses were over 28 points a game except for one is not a playoff caliber team or is it? the WCAL is stronger than most leagues as witnessed by the preseason, but the reality is no win in the WCAL for 2 years.

Now what? To the points raised are the JVs ready to step in and make a difference? The reality is Riordan does not control the line of scrimmage and this is where the game is won and lost. VC was able to just be relentless on defense as they have no fear of the run. On several plays they dared Riordan to pass with 9 in the box.

There were missed assignments (blocking) but Sweeney does not play on the field. That being said vHarbough had virtually the same team, even the same Alex Smith and they were just several minutes from going to the Super Bowl. To Mr Direct’s point, coaching matters and enthusiasm makes the difference.

Where Riordan goes will be difficult to project. In paast years the drop off frm freshman to JV has been quite high and with the added option of many talented moving from freshman to Varsity, it is anyone’s guess.

Its tough to see a team lose, but this team was abused by the WCAL. The next group has to look inside themselvres, do the necessary off season work and decide they will not be pushed around.

1.) Low enrollment is not an excuse anymore. The enrollment has increased dramatically (with athletes) the past 2 years and will continue to do so.

2.) New weight room has been there since 2010. No excuse to be puny and weak which the team is. New field to be installed in Spring. Cannot use facilities as an excuse anymore.

3.) Unrealistic alumni not an excuse. Alumni have put up with horrific losing football for 9 out of the past 10 seasons. A decent team that does not get blown out consistently and can win a game in league would be nice. Garbage coaches need not apply.

Sweeney doesn’t live in the city. Offer his salary to the coaches you mention and lets see what they say. I’m sure someone will move close enough to Riordan to be able to coach once that salary is offered. He has been paid handsomely to start turning the program around and he has failed miserably. They could’ve had 100 coaches since Parodi. Hire a good coach. Not an average one(Langridge) or a below average one (Oross) or a terrible one (Sweeney, Blake). 1 good coach (Peralta) in 20 years and guess what, he won the only WCAL football title in the past 40 years at Riordan.

They only reason I said Langridge was an average coach is the fact that he won that Med School CCS title. He had perhaps the most football talent over a 2 year span that I have ever seen at Riordan and he never went above .500 in league and had a losing record his first year. It took him over a year to figure out to run the spread with Bell at QB but at least he did it. After that ridiculous amount of talent left he went 1-8-1 and 1-9. I think average is fair enough.

ARHS Stat! Yes it takes 2 years but 0-14 in league is not making progress! Sweeney had 24 kids playing for him, progress is not being made, kids dont want to play for him! If you watched any of the games the RHS players are being bullied on the field! Put your stats up for every WCAL game hes Coach, scores and total offense. I think we all want to see that!

Were my facts for this season correct? The facts you tried calling me out on and used some backwards logic to do so. Yes they were.

With teams taking it easy on the Crusaders:
Lost by an average of 32 PPG in WCAL.
Running clock multiple games. 3.

Sweeney is a detriment to the program. He is not turning it around.
I never said let a coach come in a lose for another two years. If someone who has the desire, love for the school, can relate to teenagers from different walks of life,has a plan for effective offseason workouts and gets them faster and stronger, competent game preparation, competent in game coaching, competent clock management, and motivational skills that person will turn Riordan football around and make it what it should be. These are all the things your beloved Sweeney does NOT have.

As for talent. Please do not try to say that the 2007 team didn’t have an abundance of football talent. And the best player in Riordan history that people from all decades agree on, Daniel Cannon. Eric Wright is an NFL player. Was his team more talented than 2006 and 2007? NO. Donald Strickland was an NFL player. Was his 1997 team more talented than 2006 and 2007? NO. Enough with your false logic.

You think people wanted Sweeney to be so bad? You think Riordan supporters want an unwatchable and embarrassing football team? They gave him support even as this season was underway until they found out what kind of person and coach he is. A terrible one. They’ve seen no progress. People are not fooled by the 3-0 pre-season against sorry competition. If they had SHC’s schedule they would’ve went 0-10. As I’ve said before, stop supporting and defending this disaster of a hire. Enough is enough. And when this nightmare of a season culminates in the next few days Riordan has only once choice but to cut the cord and move on.

Poti’s fine he’s the one that drew the frosh kids. But hey is he a good coach? I say he is but……..
I want to hear it out from Mr Direct & crew if he is, not the bash session if they go 0-7 in WCAL again. But if Sweeney stays get behind him. It can’t be good for the kids to have their coach bashed by adults. They can read this site. That hurts the team.

If Coach Sweeney steps down I’d support the new Coach. Period.

Direct new turf doesn’t mean a lot if that is the only field all three teams practice on at the same time. In a true program 70-90 kids will be in the weightroom at the same time. Can Riordan weightroom handle that?Riordans facilities aren’t attractive. Clovis West’s are.

Another coaching angle for Riordan would be to find a public school coach that was successful and can draw retirement. With a Riordan income and retirement at the same time that’s huge.

As a coach I would have loved to see how I could do with no teaching load. Five history classes & a varsity job. You tell me no classes just recruit & coach. That is attractive.

Plus does Riordan have a football player class as part of the school day? If not they are missing the boat.

Those frosh are a product of the SF Warriors! My lil cousin is on the Frosh. Poti got hired after the Frosh were accepted! There are plenty of SF Warriors at Riordan. Cousin says 30 former Warriors. But back to Poti yes kids do want to play for him. I hear Peralta’s name but that may be a rumor!

Coach Poti is a fine coach, however he is not the one who drew the frosh kids to Riordan… Riordan had 9 kids from the Warriors program the year before, and the majority played JV’s. Coach Poti was at Jefferson during this time.

@akcoachj – As a previous post mentioned, have you ever seen De La Salle’s field and weight room? Both are smaller than Riordan’s. With double the number of boys participating in all field sports, DLS seems to handle it just fine.

De La Salle field space is not like Riordans. They have other fields close by they can use.

Weightroom I don’t know either.

Can’t compare the two anyway.

De La Salle only Catholic School in their part of the Bay Area. They have head coach in top 1% of coaches ever, with as good an assistant as anyone would have.

I believe Coach Poti is a good coach and fit for Riordan also.

But my point is this.

Be realistic.
Get behind your coach.
Don’t gripe about his quotes and then mirror the behavior you are stunned by in making over the top criticisms of him.
If Sweeney is back….get behind him for the kids sake.
If he’s not back get behind the new coach for the kids sake.
It isn’t right for players to have to see this garbage about their coach from adults they look up to..

I know you’ll say you’ll support the “new” because he’s not Coach Sweeney. But I believe he’ll get the support until he loses, then the merry go round starts again. Not good for Riordan.

They should not support anything that doesn’t deserve supporting. Sweeney had it, and lost it and will never get it back. This is reality. This isn’t garbage this is the truth and these are the facts. As I have said, do you think Riordan wants another crappy football coach? No. It just turned out that they hired another one. This administration has just hired one. They didn’t make all the previous hires. Let’s see if they can get it right and think outside the box the second time around.

We cannot compare the best catholic HS football coach in the Bay Area to the worst you’re right, but we can compare the size of the weight rooms which you used as an excuse. That excuse has been dismissed. But let’s see what this defensive genius has up his sleeve for Saturday night…

Ako Poti would be a good coach for Riordan’s varsity team. He relates to kids well and runs a good offense and knows how to adjust. Keeping Sweeney means kids won’t play and Riordan losses another year. If sweeney kept they go 0-7 next year period. Crusader fan thats a good call…

There are plenty Good coaches out there! Peralta (now that his son is graduating), Coach Buford (former SI Coach), Coach Ako Poti((Former Coach at Jefferson high, CCS Coach of the year just 2 years ago), Coach Blake( at least he put points on the board), etc…..

Mr Direct I love that you can bash a coach constantly on this site, but its a big secret to give names. Sounds like complaining not solutions.

Low enrollment share kids in city with two other schools in small chunk of land that families are fleeing.
1600 boys at Bellarmine.

Facilities the field 120-150 kids practice on. How many can the weightroom handle? The facilities suck lip stick on a pig right guys. SH’s suck too.

Attract a good coach to buy 500,000 to 1,000,000 home nearby to take charge of 0-14 WCAL team? (See unrealistic alumni)

Unrealistic fans YES cupboard bare when he got there. I could see o fer WCAL next year. Not year after.
If kids all bailed or didn’t & Coach Sweeney couldn’t win in 2014 then I agree.

Names Mr Direct mine were unrealistic. Hayes unrealistic. You Vocal minority, squeaky wheel gets the grease alumni come up with housing for a “Good Coach” not bad average below average. Then I’ll agree.

Riordan is not a plumb coaching job Mr. Direct. Coaches are smart one look at this site & no way they’d want the job. That not including all the factors mentioned above. This coach can’t even make a comment without being bashed. Negative comment by coach bashed. Positive comment bashed.

Paid handsomely? What does Sweeney make? What’s his teaching load? Is this a secret?

Mr. Direct is not the lone realistic voice on this board. Plain and simple, with all due respect to history and previous coaches, we are talking here, now and for the futures sake…he is NOT the Coach of the future for this program. No people/kids skills whatsoever! Does not know how to use the talent around him (players, coaches, etc). If something is not done now, then when? One more year to step 5 years backward?
It’s going to take a special coach who cares about the program and the school. Talented Frosh are great! But what happens when they get up to the Vars level and have to ‘deal’ with him? Mark my words, he’ll alienate them and their parents and some won’t play for him. A pattern of this has already been established. Wake up! Stand up!
I don’t have names for you either, I’m not a Coaching scout, just know the situation the program is in here and now.

1.) 1600 boys at Bellarmine yes. Did they have 1600 when Riordan beat them the last time they had a good coach? Yes.

Just be consistently competitive. Teams rested players, played subs for majority of games, running clock multiple games, SI passed almost 20 LESS times than their average against Riordan. Teams took it easy on Riordan and it was still this bad.

2.) As I said before, according to Riordan brass the new field going in during spring. Not an excuse anymore.

3.) Weight room is big enough. Have you seen De La Salle’s weight room? Please stop with that excuse.

4.) Kids and coaches will bail if Sweeney returns. Should Riordan just accept this? They are fools if they do. There is no benefit by doing this only negative consequences.

5.) Trust me he is paid handsomely for being a Varsity football coach. He has no teaching load. This is a FACT. And he has a losing track record at that. Just a terrible hire. No way around it.

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